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88 Works 15,303 Members 194 Reviews 15 Favorited
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About the Author

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than three decades. She is the author of more than thirty books, including such best selling works on the creative process as The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, and Finding Water. Also a novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has show more multiple credits in theater, film, and television. Emma lively is a classical violist turned musical theater writer, composer, and lyricist. She is the president of LivelyWorks, a production company, and owner of Bunny's Bakery, a custom catering business. She has served as Julia Cameron's business manager for a decade and has contributed music and lyrics to Cameron's musical works. Their first literary collaboration, The Prosperous Heart, has become an award-winning classic. show less
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Hay House, Inc.

Works by Julia Cameron

The Sound of Paper (2004) 502 copies
The Artist's Way Workbook (2006) 324 copies
Floor Sample (2006) 130 copies
Mozart's Ghost: A Novel (2008) 117 copies
Heart Steps (1997) 114 copies
Supplies (2000) 109 copies
How to Avoid Making Art (2005) 107 copies
Listening Path (2021) 106 copies
The Artist's Date Book (1999) 74 copies
Answered Prayers (2004) 72 copies
Prayers from a NonBeliever (2003) 47 copies
The Writing Life (1999) 41 copies
The Dark Room (1998) 34 copies
Prayers for the Little Ones (1999) 10 copies
Popcorn: Hollywood Stories (2000) 10 copies
The Artist's Way Workbook (2020) 7 copies
Church That Went Under (1999) 7 copies
Lev kreativt (2019) 3 copies
This Earth (1997) 1 copy

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Why did you choose this book to read? in Julia Cameron: "The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart" (February 4)

Reviews

Poor writing & uninteresting story.
 
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electrascaife | 11 other reviews | Mar 8, 2024 |
I had higher hopes for this, but found it a little thin. Lots and lots of personal anecdotes, so might have been better marketed as a Julia Cameron memoir, rather than ground-breaking skill building material.

Still, it was interesting and worth the skim to the end. And a Julia Cameron memoir is not a bad idea at all, come to think of it.
 
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BethOwl | 3 other reviews | Jan 24, 2024 |
I started this in early October, determined to stick to the weekly habits and exercises. The reality was mixed levels of success in terms of my tenacity and appreciation for Cameron's methods.

Her two cornerstones are daily morning pages and a weekly artist's date. I did the morning pages in the morning for exactly one week, but couldn't sustain getting up at 5:30am to do them (she doesn't suggest a time, but this was my only window before getting ready for work). I was just too tired and it didn't seem the right time for me to get the best out of the exercise. So for a few weeks I stuck to it religiously in the evenings, but to be quite honest I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be getting out of it. Whatever 'it' was, I wasn't feeling it. It also coincided with a very sad period for me, and I kept finding myself writing about that, which after a time wasn't what I wanted to be immersing myself in just before bedtime.

Probably up to around week 7 or 8 of the course I did many (but not all) of the exercises set for the week, and did find it particularly interesting to let my mind wander remembering things I used to enjoy doing but have stopped doing for no good reason, and things of interest which I've never tried. At times, though, particularly in the second half of the book, there seemed to be a bit of repetition around the theme of these, and some of them felt a bit 'cutesy' and not something I felt I'd benefit from doing. It was at this point that I felt the book was diverging from what I'd hoped to get out of it. Possibly more my issue than the book's, I hoped this book would help point me towards my real passion in life, but increasingly I got the sense that Cameron assumes you already know what your artistic talent is and that the point of the book is to help with creative blocks. My creative block is I can't get off the starting blocks and don't know if I even have any creative talent, not that a teacher when I was 7 critiqued me and negatively changed the path of my life forever.

But, I will give Cameron credit where it's due. Whilst I was religiously doing the exercises in the first few weeks of the course, I DID find myself becoming more interested in creative pursuits. I'd assumed that writing was the creative pursuit I wanted to develop when starting the book, but surprisingly (to me) I became less interested in writing and more interested in other artistic pursuits. I did some watercolour painting for the first time in decades, and a strange new interest in line drawing has emerged. I never knew it was something I was either interested in appreciating in others' work or that it was something I'd be interested in doing. So there must be something to Cameron's methods, as I don't think I'd have explored any of that without reading the book. I've also very quickly got out of the habit of doing these things in the last few weeks since stopping the evening pages and doing the exercises, so perhaps the key benefit of this book is that it's simply a habit that reminds you to take creative time out for yourself.

I'm not entirely sure why it has such a cult following. It's interesting at first, but I felt it goes over old ground after a time. Perhaps if you are already a fledgling film director / screenwriter / novelist / artist it gives you a kick up the backside, but I don't think it's necessarily the best book for someone who's actively trying to find their creativity.

3.5 stars - interesting, but a bit disappointing given the hype.
… (more)
½
 
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AlisonY | 79 other reviews | Dec 27, 2023 |

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Works
88
Members
15,303
Popularity
#1,486
Rating
3.9
Reviews
194
ISBNs
334
Languages
18
Favorited
15

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